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In veterinary medicine, sensitive and specific markers of the early stages of renal failure still remain to be established. Podocytes could be a promising diagnostic tool in veterinary nephrology, especially in the differentiation of active pathological disease and glomerulopathies. Podocin is one of the robust proteins exploitable in detection of podocyturia. This article presents podocyte detection in urine for diagnostic purposes in veterinary medicine using a variety of methods. We describe the advantages and disadvantages of the immunohistochemical technique currently used, and of scanning microscopy, chromatography, and immunostaining. The identification of podocin-positive cells is a promising diagnostic tool in the detection of the early stages of glomerular basement membrane damage. The detection of renal failure prior to the occurrence of azotaemia is of high clinical importance from the clinical and scientific points of view.

This article aims at the presentation of podocyturia, a reliable marker of kidney diseases, that is increasingly applied to kidney diseases diagnosis, also in veterinary medicine. Podocytes are highly specialized epithelial cells of the visceral glomerular capsule. They are essential in selective plasma filtration and the formation of primary urine. The presence of an increased number of podocytes in the urine, podocyturia, may be used as a diagnostic tool for early diagnosis of renal corpuscles injury (glomerulopathy). This study presents methods for determining podocytes in urine for diagnostic purposes. The detection of podocyturia is possible due to the detection of proteins associated with podocytes, such as nephrin, podocalyxin, synaptopodin, Wilms tumor protein, glomerular epithelial protein 1, alpha actinin-4 and podocin. According to the current literature, canine podocin can be successfully detected using a commercial ELISA test (MyBioSource, San Diego, California USA). The podocin to creatinine ratio in urine (UPoC), is a reliable marker of the degree of glomerular injury that takes also into account the degree of urine concentration. Podocyturia has been demonstrated to precede proteinuria, showing that the clinical management of proteinuria cannot be considered an early intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Interleukin 33 (IL-33) is a member of the IL-1 cytokin family. It is expressed by various cells and tissues, mainly epithelial and endothelial cells. It is a cytokine with dual function. It may act both as a traditional cytokine and as intracellular nuclear factor, functioning as transcription regulator. Its biological effect via interaction with membrane-bound ST2 receptor and IL-1 receptor accessory protein (IL-1RAcP) is associated with the induction of Th2-type immune response and IL-5 and IL-13 synthesis. IL-33 has a strong immunoregulatory properties. Depending on the type of activated cells, microenvironment, and costimulatory factors, IL-33 can act either as a pro- or anti-inflammatory cytokine. Recent studies indicate various protective effect of IL-33/ST2 sygnaling in atherosclerosis, obesity, disorders in glucose homeostasis and in heart diseases. The paper presents current state of knowledge about the structure and biological function of IL-33 and its receptor ST2, with particular emphasis on its role in pathophysiology of cardiovascular system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]